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Jef Saunders' Ear Piercing Stretching Guide
- Kids: Get your parents permission before you permanently alter your body. And despite what you've been told, it is permanent.
- Parents: We made this manual because your kids were butchering their ears anyway, please don't blame us.
Introduction
Stretching your ear lobe piercings can be a comfortable, inexpensive body modification that you can do almost entirely on your own. Following a few basic principals can result in healthy, aesthetically pleasing stretched ear lobes.
Proper Placement
Depending on how far you want to stretch your ears, the placement of your initial ear lobe piercings is essential. Slightly deeper piercings allow for far more blood flow to get to the tissue of the underside of your lobe. Blood flow is essential for healthy ear lobe tissue. If you plan on stretching your ears very large, consider re-piercing your ears with a trained, professional body piercer.
Stretch Slowly, Be Patient
Assume that your ears have been pierced with a 16 gauge (1.33 mm) captive bead ring. After the piercing has completely healed and has been healthy for a few months, the next size thicker, a 14 gauge (1.63 mm) captive bead ring, should slide through with no discomfort. After 6 to 8 weeks, your ears will once again be able to tolerate a size larger (12 gauge, or 2.06mm). By proceeding very slowly and deliberately, you will allow your scar tissue to become flexible and avoid small tears in the scar tissue ring around your piercing. These tears can result in a puckered appearance to your ear lobe when jewelry is removed, or excess scar tissue, sometimes referred to as a "blow out". Neither of these looks is aesthetically pleasing.
Tapered Jewelry and Taper Pins
Many people who stretch their ear lobes make the mistake of forcing their ears from one size to the next by using tapered jewelry or taper pins and simply pushing them through, regardless of pain or even bleeding. Forcing your ears in this way almost certainly results in torn scar tissue, which makes subsequent stretching more difficult and excess scar tissue formation almost inevitable. Tapered jewelry is good for getting from one size to the next one, and even then only after the ear lobe has been comfortably at the previous size for some time. For example, an ear lobe that has had an 8 gauge (3.26mm) plug in it for 6 to 8 weeks, a 6 gauge (4.12mm) pyrex glass spiral will slide in nicely with a little lubricant. This is especially easy after a warm shower to soften the skin.
Tape Wraps, a.k.a. The Subang Method
(wrapped ear picture courtesy Ken Coyote)
Once your ears are to a size large enough to wear a plug (solid) or an eyelet (hollow),
you can attempt stretching slowly using tape wraps. The tape most successfully used is neoprene electrical tape or Teflon pipe thread tape. Silicone tape would most likely be the most body friendly, but it is incredibly difficult to find.
You can stretch your ear by wrapping a single layer of tape around your jewelry, and reinserting the jewelry in your ear. After a week, apply another layer of tape, alternating where the seam ends. It is important to wrap the plug evenly, without stretching the tape over the plug, as the tape will return to its original length exposing adhesive to your piercing. The adhesive will likely irritate your ear tremendously. By wrapping your jewelry regularly, you can stretch your piercing relatively quickly without damaging your scar tissue. This can save you a lot of money, as you will not have to buy a new piece of jewelry each size. Electrical, silicone, and Teflon tape were never intended for use in the body. Before endeavoring to use these products for the purpose of stretching your ear, you should consider the risk of potentially strong allergic reaction, and make an informed decision.
Massage
Regular cleaning of your stretched ear lobe piercings is obvious and a hygienic responsibility. What very few people do, but more should, is massage their stretched ear lobe piercings with vitamin E oil or jojoba oil. This nourishes the scar tissue, keeps it flexible, and maintains good blood flow to the ear lobe. Doing this routine just once a week can make your ears significantly more responsive to stretching.
Single Flared vs Double Flared Jewelry
Some plugs and eyelets are made with a flare on only one side, with a rubber or silicone o-ring (rubber band) on the other side to hold the jewelry in. This jewelry was made with ease of insertion in mind, and this is the jewelry you will wear if you are stretching (for example) from a 4 gauge plug to a 2 gauge plug. Double flared jewelry is made for ears that have been at a specific size for a long period of time. You cannot stretch your piercing with double flared jewelry, because the flare is larger than your ear is ready for. Stretching into a double flared 2 gauge plug from 4 gauge would be more like stretching from 4 gauge to 0 gauge, damaging your ear in the process.
A word about "gauge"
The use of the term "gauge" has been the cause of serious teeth gnashing in the body piercing scene as of late. Gauge is a reference to size, based on the Brown and Sharpe gold wire standard. It is only a reference to size. Stretched ear lobe jewelry, like plugs and eyelets, have never been referred to as "gauges" and never should be. Referring to jewelry as "gauges" makes as much sense as calling jewelry "inches" or "millimeters". Increasing from one size to another is called stretching. It has never and should never be called "gauging".
Techniques that Usually Don't Work
- Weights. Using weight to stretch your ears usually results in a thin spot or even a split at the bottom of your lobe. Ideally, stretching the ear is uniform, not entirely on the bottom scar tissue of the ear.
- Biopsy/tissue removal. While this technique does result in large holes from the get go, it also removes tissue that may be helpful in holding large jewelry in the future. In general, the enemy of someone stretching their ears is a lack of room in the lobe. Removing tissue, in this regard, is counterproductive.
- Ear cutting. Using a scalpel to make very, very large holes in an ear can actually result in very healthy, very large stretched ear piercings. Unfortunately they can also result in weak spots at either side of the cutting site, which results in aesthetically displeasing stretching after the fact. This is a big risk to take when patience would work better.
- Silicone Eyelets. Silicone eyelets and plugs are flexible. An ill conceived sales gimmick was put forth by the manufacturers of this type of jewelry as a way of stretching from one size to the next. Simply squeeze the jewelry into your ear, and let the silicone jewelry's natural shape force your ear into the next size. Unfortunately, the silicone is "grippy" in texture and tends to irritate as the jewelry expands. This is a strongly suggested against method for stretching ones ears.
Further information is available from your local professional body piercer, as well as us at:
Rockstar Body Piercing
401-272-0345
www.rockstarpiercing.com
To keep up with more articles from Jeff, head over to his blog: http://www.jefsaunders.com
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